The Mind of Miyazaki

Blissful, artistic scenery. Cuddly, talking creatures. Delicious food that you just want to take a bite out of. All these elements and more define the beautiful animations that Studio Ghibli has meticulously created for audiences worldwide. Some of the animation company’s most iconic works come from its infamous co-founder, Miyazaki Hayao. He has been considered an inspiration by many artists and storytellers from around the world for almost four decades, showcasing heart-wrenching themes in the most picturesque way, but how did this artistic genius come to be? What approaches did he have when creating his films?

Miyazaki Hayao was born in Tokyo, Japan on Jan. 5, 1941. His father, Katsuji, was a director at his brother’s airplane company, Miyazaki Airplane, which gave him a love for flying and inspired his future works. His mother, Yoshiko, also inspired him with her way of life, being intellectual, strict, and always questioning the “societal norms,” at the time. However, Miyazaki’s early childhood was riddled with the events of World War II, with bombed cities and constant evacuations. This terrible backdrop at that time left a lasting impression on him.

Around the time that he started school, he initially aspired to be a manga artist, but had trouble with drawing people, only recreating images of war-like vehicles for many years. Despite this, he was fascinated with the art of animation, and had even skipped out on studying for his college entrance exams to go see Japan’s first feature-length animated film, “Panda and the Magic Serpent” (1958). He then went to Gakushuin University to study economics and political science, while simultaneously becoming more involved with art on the side. He joined a small art organization on campus, visited his middle school art teacher to sketch away in his studio and even threw around some story ideas in the manga art that he created.

In 1963, Miyazaki graduated and started working for Toei Animation, where he met his future business partner, Takahata Isao, and his future wife, Ota Akemi. As they all worked their way through the animation industry, Miyazaki contributed to multiple projects and even made some of his own, with his first feature-length film being “Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro” (1979). He started to establish his individual art style more with the release of a monthly manga strip, “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” which followed a warrior princess named Nausicaä, who navigates an ecologically destroyed world in the distant future. The strip gained a ton of popularity, and he was encouraged to adapt it into a film. He refused at first but eventually agreed when he was allowed to direct. Being inspired by the Minamata Bay poisoning during the 50s and 60s, and how nature thrived in that polluted environment, along with the novel “Dune,” by Frank Herbert, he and Takahata brought on more animators and composer Joe Hisashi to highlight the dystopian atmosphere. “Nausicaä” was released in 1984, which was also successful and established Miyazaki’s reputation as an artist. It became a favorite film for many sci-fi fans, including half-Japanese UCF senior Alan Giraldo. “The reason ‘Nausicaä’ is my favorite is because it was the very first anime that I watched growing up,” Giraldo said. “Being born in Japan and left when I was an infant, I wasn’t really exposed to my home country. My mother introduced this movie to me at a young age... it opened up my fascination with the sci-fi genre.” The success of “Nausicaä” further incentivized the duo to establish a permanent animation company: Studio Ghibli.

Throughout the 80s, Studio Ghibli produced hit after hit, from their first official movie, “Laputa: Castle in the Sky” (1986), to the film that established their opening credits, “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988), which initially wasn’t considered successful, but the merchandise exponentially promoted it. Both films received a great amount of praise. “Castle in the Sky will remain one of my all-time favorite movies because of its seamless blend of fantastical imagery, action-adventure spectacle, and childlike wonder,” UCF student Day Lin Cho said. Takahata led the production of “Grave of the Fireflies” (1988) and released it alongside “Totoro” to keep the studio financially successful. They also managed to acquire the rights to a famous Japanese novel, which eventually became “Kiki’s Delivery Service” (1989), the highest-grossing Japanese film at the time. “‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ is by far my favorite Ghibli film,” UCF student Ava Dennison said. “The whimsical element of it is something that I hold dear to my heart because Kiki’s Delivery Service and other Ghibli films became an escape for me during COVID.” However, despite these great successes, there’s more in store.

The 90s featured films with more somber tones, starting with “Porco Rosso” (1991). Independently leading “Porco,” Miyazaki explored anti-war themes, being inspired by the Yugoslavian war at the time, but he felt that the final product was too mature for children. However, he would save these morals for future projects. While the decade didn’t start particularly well, it certainly ended with a bang, with the release of “Princess Mononoke” (1997). The story follows Prince Ashitaka, who goes on a journey to cure himself from a curse, and stumbles upon a conflict involving nature and humanity. It was the first animated film to win the Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year, and it was also the highest-grossing film in Japan for several months (it’s quite the trend that they stick to).

Entering the 2000s, Miyazaki realized that he hadn’t created a film that appealed to young girls. He found that the popular magazines that catered to girls at the time didn’t truly understand what they “held dear in their hearts,” and only discussed school-girl crushes and simple romance. Along with wanting to highlight human greed, he created “Spirited Away” (2001), which won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, and won another Picture of the Year award. Like past Ghibli films, it was the highest-grossing film in Japan and maintained that record for 20 years. After the release of “Spirited Away,” they began work on converting a British novel into the animation medium: “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004). He gave his anti-war message a second try when producing this film, as it revolves around a conflict between two fictional nations, putting the main protagonist, Sophie, and a wizard that she stumbles upon, Howl, in the middle of it. Miyazaki took a lot of creative liberties with the movement of the castle in the movie, as it wasn’t properly explained in the book. Upon release, it was received well around the world, including being possibly his most popular film in the Western world. In 2006, his son, Goro, came out with his first animated film under the company’s name, “Tales From Earthsea.” Miyazaki wasn’t present throughout Goro’s childhood due to his work, but Goro tried to impress his father, despite having no experience in the industry beforehand. However, his efforts had the opposite effect. Only an hour into watching “Earthsea,” Miyazaki walked out of the theater with a cigarette in hand, and said, “It feels like I was sitting there for three hours.” He went back in to finish the movie, and walked out again, saying, “I saw my own child. He hasn’t become an adult. That’s all... It’s good that he made one movie. With that, he should stop [making movies].” Despite this harsh criticism, he helped his son co-write “From Up The Poppy Hill” (2006), which received better reviews. In 2008, “Ponyo” came out and is considered by many as “The Little Mermaid” of Studio Ghibli. While Miyazaki was initially inspired by the latter source by Hans Christian Andersen, he was heavily focused on exploring a child’s universe. Wanting to only involve 2D animation without 3D effects, he insisted on drawing a lot of the frames himself, experimenting with the movement of the sea and waves. “Ponyo is the earliest Studio Ghibli film I remember watching...” UCF student Lucas Sanchez said. “...It incited in me an entire world flooded and open to new forms of exploration.”

The 2010s were less eventful, with the only noteworthy release being “The Wind Rises” (2013). Miyazaki was inspired to make the film after reading a profound quote from Jiro Horikoshi, an engineer during World War II: “All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful.” Going off of the novel “The Wind Has Risen” (1936-38) and the life of Horikoshi, the film explores themes of pacifism over war, even though he denied having an anti-war stance in this project. Otherwise, the decade for Miyazaki was riddled with project proposals, retiring announcements that were eventually revoked and working on displays at the Studio Ghibli Museum.

In the past few months in the animation industry, animators have had a hard time keeping Miyazaki’s name out of their mouths, as his “retirement” film “The Boy and the Heron” (2023) was released in December, following a year-round Ghibli Fest that re-released all of the studio’s most iconic movies in theaters. Audiences, both old and new, were excited to witness a new story in a familiar, comforting art style. Cho has even praised it, “for respecting the audiences’ intelligence with its willingness to explore more mature, philosophical themes such as death and the afterlife amidst its whimsical visuals.” It won numerous awards this past award season, including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Throughout his 83 years of life, it’s impossible to argue that Miyazaki has no experience, much less an interesting perception of the world. His work throughout numerous decades has inspired many creators in multiple mediums, including some at the UCF campus.

“Ghibli was my first proper introduction [to] animation and storytelling that made me love the fantastical and the colorful,” Lee Eimer, president of the Writers Uknighted organization said. “I write often, and I started learning art because of Ghibli.”

The aesthetics of the films even present themselves in students’ everyday lives. “I did my whole room in my apartment ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’- inspired, thrifting and up-cycling furniture,” Dennison said. His influence knows no bounds, spreading across multiple generations and

multiple countries.

For those who are familiar with his reputation, he can come off as strict, even strange to work with. He had a lot of outlandish practices, including separating animators by blood type and waiting at the front door for late employees. He was also motivated by failure, which he chose to spread throughout the studio. Steve Alpert, a former executive who helped Studio Ghibli’s outreach outside of Japan, detailed this experience while working for him in his memoir, “Sharing a House With the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli”: “Several times after the completion of one of his films, Miyazaki would suggest that the studio be shut down and all the staff be fired. He thought this would give the animators a sense of the consequences of failure and make them better artists if and when they were re-hired for the next film. No one was ever sure if he was just kidding.” Some go as far as to describe him as extremely selfish, yet others also acknowledge that his selfishness, along with any artist’s selfishness, is a part of the creative process and that it helps contribute to great work.

He has also been known to be pessimistic at times, especially with where the modern world is heading with the environment and war. It baffles some on how he could create products that practically radiate positivity. However, these darker thoughts are present throughout his work, the malicious monsters hiding in the shadows of flower fields and open seas. While it is unfortunate that audiences tend to overlook the themes at times, maybe he also has an aligning agenda with their mindset. His films could be seen as an attempt to see the beauty and happiness in life, even with the evil that plagues it. Especially today, it can be hard to see the silver linings in the clouds, yet Studio Ghibli’s films remind us that they are still there. If anything, it allows accurate depictions of how life feels, which can connect to any audience member. “I believe Miyazaki and the company do a dentists’ job at creating memorable stories and experiences for their viewers in a

beautifully crafted journey that’s enticing and relatable throughout,’’ UCF student Timmothy Tapia said. People admire not only the visual beauty he has provided, but also what that beauty says about us and our lives. Despite the darkness that Miyazaki had witnessed in his own life and around the world, he managed to make it into beautiful art with meaningful messages that we can all hold within our hearts.